« Motivation is the art of getting people to do
what you want them to do because they want to do it. »
Increasing the
motivation for Physics using English
as a medium of
teaching
A Constantin1 M Kassab2
1 National College "Radu Greceanu", 8, N.Balcescu
Slatina, OLT County , Romania
Email: rorua1@yahoo.com
2Hajr Health Science Institute, Saudi Arabia
Email : mokassab1@yahoo.com
Abstract
Using a
second language as a medium of teaching other subjects is a controversial issue
which engendered vivid disputes. When this subject is a science like
Mathematics or Physics, people tend to think that the foreign language could
become a serious handicap.
The
authors of this article consider that English medium could be a high impetus
and exciting motivator for learning Physics, if the instructional approach is
adequate to the specific context. Far from considering exhaustive, we suggest
some strategies which can increase the interest of pupils for studying Physics
in bilingual classes, as well as for enhancing the degree of concepts’
understanding. For we don't believe that using the medium, English language, is
the barrier but the way we use the medium itself.
The
present paper is based on the factual and deep research teaching experience in
one of bilingual classes in Romania
One
important thing is to move away from plain language as far as possible so we
have to use games, visual aids, songs and extra-activities to convey the concept
and improve the linguistic ability.
Introduction
At a first sight,
teaching Physics in classes of humanities could be seen like an easy issue. The
syllabus is less intricate than that in similar classes with scientific
profiles. The problems and experiments are less difficult and therefore one
could say that it is more comfortable for a teacher to conduct such a class.
However, it is clear that scientific education may not only comprise facts and
laws, but also has to clarify the scientific background of Physics terms and
laws viewed from philosophy of science [1].
On the other hand,
the teacher who “faces” a class of humanities is confronted with a problem
which is somehow general, but more accentuated in such a situation: the lack of
motivation. How to motivate the students for learning Physics, when it is known
that their interest is in the fields of literature, languages, history, arts?
It was the first and key question which bothered one of the authors of this
article before having started the education in a bilingual class in Romania
A solution came from
CLIL concept. CLIL is an acronym for Content and Language Integrated Learning and
refers to any dual-focused educational context in which an additional
language, thus not usually the first language of the learners involved, is used
as a medium in the teaching and learning of non-language content [3]. Shortly, the
basis of CLIL is that content subjects are taught and learnt in a language
which is not the mother tongue of the learners. There is no doubt
that learning a language and learning through a language are concurrent
processes, but implementing CLIL requires a rethink of the traditional concepts
of the language classroom and the language teacher [4].
“In many countries, science
is taught in a second language, often English. This is the case, for example,
in bilingual streams in schools in Europe and further afield, in English-medium
education in Africa and in multicultural schools in the UK , North America or Australia Sheffield ,
2-7 February 2004.
The availability of
CLIL-trained teachers is extremely limited in Romania
Even if the content
subject is the primary focus in the CLIL classroom, it is obvious that a high
proficiency in English is demanded from the teacher. Therefore, the
collaboration between Physics and English teachers is very useful.
More details of CLIL
could be found on the site http://www.cilt.org.uk/clip/index.htm.
To better understand why CLIL teaching was chosen as a way of increasing the
awareness and motivation for Physics we will briefly expose the four principles
of CLIL:
*content-progression in knowledge, skills and understanding related
to specific elements of defined curriculum
*communication-using language to learn-whilst learning to use
language
*cognition-developing thinking skills which link concept formation
(abstract and concrete), understanding and language
*culture-exposure to alternative perspectives and shared
understandings which deepen awareness of otherness and self.
The
present paper is based on two whole years of teaching experience in a bilingual
class and shows the ways used to increase pupils’ interest in terms of CLIL. We
convey also both the advantages and disadvantages which appear in this approach
and some students’ opinions regarding their benefits during the course.
The authors of this
article consider that English medium could be a high impetus and exciting
motivator for learning Physics, if the instructional approach is adequate to
the specific context. Far from considering exhaustive, we suggest some
strategies which can increase the interest of pupils for studying Physics in
bilingual classes, as well as for enhancing the degree of concepts’
understanding.
Bilingual class
The background of
the class was the following:
-initially the class
was formed by 30 students (aged 15 years) in the first year of high school;
-the students’
results in the process of admission were ranged between 9.83 and 8.50 (out of
10);
-all students passed
an exam of English before admission;
-all students were
already familiarized with the basic notions in Physics during the previous
three years in their middle school;
-the profile of the
class: Humanities;
-all students had
studied English at least for four years and could fluently speak English.
Why Sciences in general
and why Physics?
The educators are
responsible to provide everyone with the background knowledge to help us cope
with the fast-paced of today of tomorrow. We live in an age of constant
scientific discovery - a world shaped by revolutionary new technologies. Just
looking in a newspaper one could discover headlines whose meanings are
difficult to be understood without scientific literacy. To be scientific
literate is not only an issue related to the appreciation and understanding of
the world around, but also an issue that directly opens one’s career
opportunities. In a modern society to understand scientific issues has got
multiple aspects: civic, aesthetic and intellectual [6]. In this context,
science educators all over the world joined their efforts in promoting new
powerful educational approaches so that everyone to share the adventure of
science. Talking about Physics, it is clear that this is « the largest and
most useful tool we have for taking the occurrences of nature, of a vast
variety, and making them amenable to man's mind [7]. »
It is absolutely
necessary to begin the Physics course with an introduction about the importance
of Physics in daily life and about science literacy in general. First of all
the majority of students raise this question: “Why use to study Physics if we
chose a class of humanities?” The introduction mustn’t be seen as a singular
lesson. The teacher should always emphasize as much as possible the importance
and applicability of each item.
Why Physics in
English?
Teaching Physics in
English as a foreign language involves some new things. The main one is that
students are learning not only the subject-matter knowledge and skills, but
also the specific language which is the vehicle for that subject. Thus, the
efforts both from the part of teacher and students are higher.
Despite of the
criticism which points out bilingual education, we consider this new trend in
education very helpful with the condition of rethinking learning and teaching
principles that aid in the acquisition of both language and content.
The effectiveness of
bilingual approach is revealed by the multiple advantages entailed by it:
- Build intercultural knowledge
and understanding
- Develop intercultural skills
- Introduce the wider cultural
context
- Prepare for
internationalization, specifically EU integration
- Access International
Certification
- Enhance the school profile
- Improve overall and specific
language competence
- Develop communication skills
- Deepen awareness of both
mother tongue and target language
- Prepare for future studies and
/ or working life
- Develop multilingual interests
and attitudes
- Complement individual learning
strategies
- Diversify methods and forms of
classroom teaching and learning
- Increase learner motivation
[3].
The best
advantage in a class where students has got a good level of English is that
they won’t focus on language in the detriment of subject content. Evidently,
using the language in a new field leads to the raising of student confidence by
inducing the awareness of the value of transferable skills and knowledge.
Matching
Course Goals and Personal Learning Goals, Interests and Background Knowledge
The course goals
must be chosen at an appropriate level with personal learning goals. Besides,
to capitalize students’ background and make use of their own interests
represent an art as well as a crucial key for successful education. Therefore good
information about the students’ knowledge on the subject and their personal
skills and hobbies helps the teacher to find “hooks” for implementing new
information.
One of the most
important and just difficult moments of lesson is the start of it when the
teacher tries to captivate the students’ attention. Good information about
students makes this job easier and directs the teacher toward the most adequate
ways of introduction in a certain topic.
On the whole, in a
class with a humanistic profile, lecture constitutes one of the main hobbies.
Consequently, to know what are students preferences in reading can help teacher
to raise questions related to certain books. There are many examples of books
(let’s think of Jules Verne’s novels for instance), where Physics is embedded
in nice and attractive stories. There are also poems which “translate” in an
artistic and philosophical approach a specific Physics’ concept. For example,
the wonderful poem “To the star” by Eminescu is always a successful way of
starting a lesson about light speed:
“So far it is athwart the blue
To where yon star appears,
That for its light to reach our view
Has needed thousand years.
To where yon star appears,
That for its light to reach our view
Has needed thousand years.
Maybe those ages gone it shed
Its glow, then languished in the skies,
Yet only now its rays have sped
Their journey to our eyes.
Its glow, then languished in the skies,
Yet only now its rays have sped
Their journey to our eyes.
The icon of the star that died
Slowly the vault ascended;
Time was ere it could first be spied,
We see now what is ended.[..]”
Slowly the vault ascended;
Time was ere it could first be spied,
We see now what is ended.[..]”
Shorts excerpts from books,
newspapers, but also paintings, songs or movies (artistic and documentary) are
also great points of start in teaching new lessons. There are a huge number of
examples in which we can create a bridge from Humanities towards Physics. It is
already known that humour enhances the quality of learning. The jokes relevant
and related to lesson’s content always incite learners’ curiosity. Some quotes
could be start points for a concept. For instance, the well-known quote of
Einstein: “Gravity is not responsible for people falling in love” was a great
clue for gravitational interaction and aroused students’ interest for the
topic. Each introductory presentation should be followed by discussions related
to its content. Teacher should also notice the ways that students perceive it
and guide them toward the correct meaning. Since the successful learning
demands an active engagement of the students it is recommended that the
introduction in each lesson to be based in a certain measure on students’
previous knowledge. In some situation it can come from students with helping
questions.
To examine the role that
Physics plays in literature, painting, music engendered a positive emotional
involvement of students in the class of humanities. Being sensitive to arts in
general, the students are easier captivated with “artistic examples” and
“gained” for Physics.
Specific language in Physics
Physics is very rich in
specialized words which have multiple meanings. Usually it is well to begin
from the everyday meaning which is more likely to be known and to extrapolate
it in Physics’ field. To identify the key words is a very important task. In
addition, word roots are very helpful to develop an understanding of the
scientific meaning of the word. Initially, it can be given by teacher and then
students can be guided to do it by themselves and to discover the common and
scientific meanings of different words with the help of the dictionary. To
learn words them along with the scientific content is the best way of
acquisition scientific language. A good command of target language is also
compulsory in order to have an accurate understanding of concepts [8].
Listening, reading, writing
and talking
In our opinion, teaching
Physics through the medium of English should not drive students away from the
content of subject. Thus, the accent in such approach must be on Physics.
However, there is a close interaction between the two fields (scientific and
foreign language). Learning Physics includes learning the language of Physics.
Thus, the teacher is responsible both for progresses in Physics and English
fields. The aim is: “using English to learn and learning to use English”. One
of the advantages of bilingual approach is that we can borrow from the
strategies specific for learning foreign languages. Learning Physics through
the medium of English have to develop equally the communication skills. A short
schema of these skills and some related aspects may be conveyed as it follows:
In this regard, the teacher must implement
various activities within the lessons. To be efficient, the questions,
exercises and experiments should be gradated in terms of the six levels of
Bloom’s taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension,
application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. These activities may be used for “leading”
purposes activities as well for assessment.
Class and Homework Tasks
Far from being a burden, the tasks
and homework could become exciting if they are diversified and related to
students’ interests and hobbies. To teach in a bilingual class is an advantage
regarding the palette of task types. Taking into account the profile of the
class as well as students’ abilities the teacher has to alternate the tasks in
order to arouse students’ curiosity and enthusiasm. Moreover, tasks have to
develop students’ creativity. Writing problems, essays, short poems, drawing,
building posters which illustrate concepts and laws, building different simple
devices for laboratory were activities in which we discovered that students
participated with much pleasure and often demonstrated their special talents. 
Examples: 1.
Present in your own style (draw, poster, poem, etc.) the statement of
2. One of the most exciting
tasks was that to ask the students to prepare and teach a lesson, usually when
it did not introduce difficult concepts. They assumed the role of teacher with
much responsibility and made a serious research on internet in this regard. The
lessons presented in Power Point demonstrated a good preparation and
understanding of materials.
An important thing is to
acknowledge the effort made with sufficient feedback to make students feel that
it was worthwhile in reaching their goals. Positive feedback in class is
rewarding and increase motivation. In addition, teacher should help the
students to appreciate the satisfaction of having mastered material. It entails
that students focus on learning as a goal rather than on grades.
Another aspects related to
feedback is its frequency and the variety of forms. Frequent and diverse
feedbacks renewed the students’ enthusiasm.
Allowing students to present their works, for instance, increases the
motivation, because it permits them to shape the lesson in their own style and
also to achieve their goals. [9]
Cooperative learning should
also be considered in assigning the tasks. Working in teams provides more
opportunities for all students. At the same time, collaboration develops social
and interpersonal skills.
Computer Assistance Teaching
(CAT)
It is very known the
widespread use of computer in the process of education. Today, teachers are
proud to implement CAT in the process of instruction.
In bilingual classes, apart from
audio-video presentations which are common for all types of lessons, we could
use specific materials either for Physics or for language and better mix them.
Virtual experiments, online tests, software for mastering words adapted for
specific language, games are just a few from the huge ways in which computer
activities can be implemented in bilingual class. “Students are not blank
slates. What they learn depends strongly on what they know - or think they
know. Students learn best through active engagement - but "hands-on"
activities are not enough; it must be "brains-on" as well.” What we
want to emphasize too is that we promote the use of computer but cautiously.
The presentations or software programs should be carefully chosen and adapted
to the class profile. “The same program, used in different ways can produce
highly positive effects -or none.”[10]
Assessment
Talking about the evaluation our
opinion is that in bilingual classes it is recommended to use informal
assessment rather than a formal one (by tests, quizzes or papers). Even if ones
of informal alternatives could appear to be unfair, we consider that these
alternatives are very good to eliminate the negative effects of formal
assessment as well as to motivate the active participation of students during
the course.
Here are some of informal
alternatives used in bilingual class:
-continuous assessment-which include
a number of assignments
-observation
-debates
-student portfolio
-self-assessment
-peer-assessment
-teacher’s assessment-which is
related to work done throughout the course included classroom contributions.
Conclusions
There are many advantages of
teaching Physics through the medium of Physics. In our opinion, the main one is
that the approach is topic focused and that it offers the students the
opportunity to develop the language through the content. Both Physics and
English are enhanced. Moreover, when the teacher achieves interesting bridge
between Physics and student’s goals and interest, students may be more
motivated than when the focus is solely on the nuts and bolts of the subject.
Students’ opinions revealed the
positive effect which the course produced in the two years of teaching Physics
in English:
“For the beginning I was a little
scared. It seemed to me that Physics is hard, but Physics in English appeared
to be too much. The truth is that I was enthralled by this course. It was
something else than what we had before. Besides, I learned many things both in
English and Physics”
“The course was exciting. We were
not stressed by difficult and boring formula. The various activities helped us
to learn interesting things. My vocabulary was evidently enhanced, but the most
important is that I am now more confident in debating various topics related to
science”
A main disadvantage in teaching
Physics through the medium of English was the lack of materials. To prepare the
lessons requested a high effort from the teacher. In this work an English
teacher was involved also to assure the accuracy of the language. Talking about
students it should notice the difficulty of learning new things when they are
taught in a foreign language. We considered the efforts made were rewarded by
the students’ achievements.
Students’ positive answers, our
survey and feedback determined us to conclude that teaching Physics in English
increases motivation and enhances the pupils' learning experience by exploiting
the synergies between the two subjects [5].
References
1. Gesche Pospiech “ Physics in
Media-Opportunities for Training Scientific Thinking” Informal Learning and Public Understanding of Physics, 3th
International GIREP Seminar 2005, Selected Contributions
2. Manfred Euler, “A word from the President”,
http://www.pef.uni-lj.si/girep/
3. http://www.clilcompendium.com/
7. Eric Smith, “Fundamental Concepts of Century Physics”, http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~gleeson/httb/httb.html
8. John Clegg, “Providing language support in CLIL”, http://www.factbg.hit.bg/issue6/f6-clegg.pdf
9. Monique Boekaertes, Motivation to Learn, http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/EducationalPracticesSeriesPdf/prac10e.pdf
10. Edward Redish, “Is the Computer Appropriate for Teaching
Physics?” Computers in Physics,
7(6), 613 (1993)
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